10 Things You Should Sell To Free Up Time And Money

If you are anything like me, you have a knack for hanging onto too many things that you just don’t need anymore. If you take a look in your basement or around your house, you can probably find something that you haven’t used in years. That item is a prime candidate to sell! Books you will never read again, cd’s you don’t listen too anymore, clothes that don’t fit, electronics, and even furniture.

Take this opportunity to declutter your space a little. Simplify things a bit and free up some of your time and regain some of your money.

Regardless of if you are aiming to declutter or gain some extra cash, I guarantee there are things around your house you no longer need. Sell these items on ebay, locally on your Craigslist or Kijiji, a yard sale, or maybe to one of your friends in your social network like Twitter or Facebook. You can take that money and use it to invest, pay down debt, treat yourself, or save for a rainy day. Don’t just throw that money out the window! Take a shot at selling it first. If you can’t sell that old VCR, then yes, you can throw it out … but wait! Did you know that most cities have a recycling plant that will take old electronics in exchange for cash? Granted, you need a fair bit of weight to amount to any money, but if you have larger items like old tube tv’s or rear projection tv’s, you can probably get a chunk of change for recycling it instead of kicking it to the curb (where more often than not, someone else will recycle it for you for the cash!).

Clothes

Everyone has clothes they don’t wear anymore. Some of it probably pretty nice. Some of it I bet has hardly been worn. Take a look through your wardrobe and see what you can purge. Do you really need those 3 wind breakers? How about those 10 hoodies? If you have some expensive clothing items, there is probably a consignment store in your city that you can try as well.

Sporting equipment

I store all my sporting equipment in the basement. Consider letting go of some of your stuff that you are unlikely to ever use again. I’ve been guilty of hanging onto golf clubs (even though I have only been to the driving range … twice), roller blades (even though I haven’t used them in over twenty years), and multiple bikes, to name a few. The roller blades I was unable to sell, so they were donated to the local good will store. I have two bikes: a mountain bike and a hybrid road bike. Truthfully I don’t ride either anymore, but keeping one bike never hurt anyone. So I am posting the hybrid road bike for sale this week. I paid $1000 for that bike and used it for about a year. Such a waste. There is always a demand for sporting goods locally, so definitely get that stuff up on Craigslist and Kijiji.

Vehicles

I’m guilty of owning more vehicles than I should. I have (correction, had) both a Jeep TJ and a Triumph Street Triple motorcycle. My wife also had a Ninja 250 motorcycle. Since we drive them infrequently, this year we sold all three. This frees up ongoing costs for insurance, maintenance and repairs, and puts a lot of money back into our pockets. The money we reclaimed from these vehicles went straight to debt repayment.

Furniture

Do you ever re-decorate? Maybe you renovated or repainted and that table and couch just don’t go with what you are envisioning anymore. Instead of moving this stuff into your basement, post it for sale first! We are currently trying to sell a wine cabinet, but are shortly going to add a fireplace screen, two small tables, and a headboard that we are storing in the basement (just in case, you know?).

DVD’s and BlueRays

If you have movies sitting on shelves (or in boxes!) that you have not watched within the last two years, get rid of them. Movies don’t sell for much, but $2 for a movie that you can watch on Netflix anyway is better than nothing.

Books

My wife and I are book hoarders. We admit it. But every now and then you have to take some off the shelves to make room for more. Books can actually make reasonable money depending on what you have and what condition they are in. I once spent several hundred dollars buying out of print hard cover editions of one of my wife’s favourite book series. So scan your book shelf and take a look at ebay to see what you have that might be worth selling.

Gift Cards

Everyone gets gift cards they don’t want from time to time. Get it out of your wallet and posted online at a discounted price so that you can spend that money on something worthwhile.

Jewellry and watches

I bet you have some jewellery you don’t wear anymore, some of it probably not all that cheap. Maybe a fancy watch that you don’t fancy anymore (ha!).

Music CD’s

Do you even own a cd player anymore (that isn’t in your car)? I bet those cd’s are just taking up space and needing dusting. Purge!

Video Games

I try to get into the habit of playing and selling games before their value completely tanks. Not always successfully … but I have learned that instead of trying to sell a video game like Halo 1 for a couple of bucks, you can take that cd and upcycle it into something cool like a clock! The first video game clock I sold went for $25. That’s pretty decent considering I only had to spend $6 for a new clock movement!

3 thoughts on “10 Things You Should Sell To Free Up Time And Money”

Thanks for sharing! My biggest one would be books. I go on these book buying sprees where I buy 10+ books at a time; but I never even read them! It’s so odd. The mere act of buying the books, makes it feel like an accomplishment. Not as much as actually reading them, but still something nonetheless. But don’t get me wrong. I read a ton. I just can’t keep up with the amount of books I buy!